Sleeper Picks to Make the NCAA Tournament

[GoWithTheFlo]

Just a list as I pick them. Anyone is free to put their thoughts here. 
 

First pick: Sam Ewing (Buffalo). Donny Vinson has a good track record getting 149 pounders to qualify. Ewing also showing rapid improvement. Heard it here first. 

[Tyler Perry]

125: Colby Crouch (Campbell)

125: JJ Peace (American)

125: Beric Jordan (Oklahoma) (I think he does really well)

133: Marcel Lopez (SIUE)

141: Caedyn Riccardi (Navy)

141: Dario Lemus (Maryland)

141: Alex Braun (Oklahoma)

149: Andre Gonzales (Cal Poly)

157: Joel Adams (Oregon State)

157: Anthony Ferrari (Campbell)

157: Eric Almarinez (SIUE)

165: Brock Woodcock (SIUE)

174: Colin Kelly (Illinois)

174: Moses Espinoza (SDSU)

197: Ibrahim Ameer (Drexel)

197: Max Shulaw (Virginia)

197: Robert Platt (North Carolina)

285: Chase Horne (Maryland)

285: Spencer Langosa (Navy)

[2001Hokie]

2 hours ago, Tyler Perry said:

125: Colby Crouch (Campbell)

125: JJ Peace (American)

125: Beric Jordan (Oklahoma) (I think he does really well)

133: Marcel Lopez (SIUE)

141: Caedyn Riccardi (Navy)

141: Dario Lemus (Maryland)

141: Alex Braun (Oklahoma)

149: Andre Gonzales (Cal Poly)

157: Joel Adams (Oregon State)

157: Anthony Ferrari (Campbell)

157: Eric Almarinez (SIUE)

165: Brock Woodcock (SIUE)

174: Colin Kelly (Illinois)

174: Moses Espinoza (SDSU)

197: Ibrahim Ameer (Drexel)

197: Max Shulaw (Virginia)

197: Robert Platt (North Carolina)

285: Chase Horne (Maryland)

285: Spencer Langosa (Navy)

Does Langosa count as a sleeper pick after he beat Pitzer ('25 R12) twice this weekend? 

[Truzzcat]

2 hours ago, Tyler Perry said:

125: Colby Crouch (Campbell)

125: JJ Peace (American)

125: Beric Jordan (Oklahoma) (I think he does really well)

133: Marcel Lopez (SIUE)

141: Caedyn Riccardi (Navy)

141: Dario Lemus (Maryland)

141: Alex Braun (Oklahoma)

149: Andre Gonzales (Cal Poly)

157: Joel Adams (Oregon State)

157: Anthony Ferrari (Campbell)

157: Eric Almarinez (SIUE)

165: Brock Woodcock (SIUE)

174: Colin Kelly (Illinois)

174: Moses Espinoza (SDSU)

197: Ibrahim Ameer (Drexel)

197: Max Shulaw (Virginia)

197: Robert Platt (North Carolina)

285: Chase Horne (Maryland)

285: Spencer Langosa (Navy)

great list

[Antitroll2828]

11 hours ago, Tyler Perry said:

125: Colby Crouch (Campbell)

125: JJ Peace (American)

125: Beric Jordan (Oklahoma) (I think he does really well)

133: Marcel Lopez (SIUE)

141: Caedyn Riccardi (Navy)

141: Dario Lemus (Maryland)

141: Alex Braun (Oklahoma)

149: Andre Gonzales (Cal Poly)

157: Joel Adams (Oregon State)

157: Anthony Ferrari (Campbell)

157: Eric Almarinez (SIUE)

165: Brock Woodcock (SIUE)

174: Colin Kelly (Illinois)

174: Moses Espinoza (SDSU)

197: Ibrahim Ameer (Drexel)

197: Max Shulaw (Virginia)

197: Robert Platt (North Carolina)

285: Chase Horne (Maryland)

285: Spencer Langosa (Navy)

Riccardi is going right away? I thought navy usually red/ grey shirts guys first year 

[Interviewed_at_Weehawken]

133 Musa Tamaradze App State

[ScottishSteel]

Could add Ray Lopez from American (133) as well.

[GoWithTheFlo]

15 hours ago, Tyler Perry said:

125: Colby Crouch (Campbell)

125: JJ Peace (American)

125: Beric Jordan (Oklahoma) (I think he does really well)

133: Marcel Lopez (SIUE)

141: Caedyn Riccardi (Navy)

141: Dario Lemus (Maryland)

141: Alex Braun (Oklahoma)

149: Andre Gonzales (Cal Poly)

157: Joel Adams (Oregon State)

157: Anthony Ferrari (Campbell)

157: Eric Almarinez (SIUE)

165: Brock Woodcock (SIUE)

174: Colin Kelly (Illinois)

174: Moses Espinoza (SDSU)

197: Ibrahim Ameer (Drexel)

197: Max Shulaw (Virginia)

197: Robert Platt (North Carolina)

285: Chase Horne (Maryland)

285: Spencer Langosa (Navy)

 

12 hours ago, Truzzcat said:

great list

Agreed. I was thinking andre gonzalez too. 

[Antitroll2828]

17 hours ago, GoWithTheFlo said:

Just a list as I pick them. Anyone is free to put their thoughts here. 
 

First pick: Sam Ewing (Buffalo). Donny Vinson has a good track record getting 149 pounders to qualify. Ewing also showing rapid improvement. Heard it here first. 

Almost a guarantee that someone from Rider that no one considers or even heard of right now will qualify in march . I don’t think any program does more with less then rider 

 

 

Jace Schafer 125 for Bloomsburg now gets Stuzman his first NQ since his return this season 

[ScottishSteel]

18 hours ago, Antitroll2828 said:

Almost a guarantee that someone from Rider that no one considers or even heard of right now will qualify in march . I don’t think any program does more with less then rider 

 

 

Jace Schafer 125 for Bloomsburg now gets Stuzman his first NQ since his return this season 

Great call - it's not talked about enough at all about how consistent Rider is w/ that

[ScottishSteel]

Mentioned this name in the Navy Classic thread but Eugene Harney from Morgan St

[Winners Circle]

On 11/3/2025 at 6:44 AM, Antitroll2828 said:

Riccardi is going right away? I thought navy usually red/ grey shirts guys first year 

Yes. Ricciardi is the guy. No, service academies cannot redshirt. Kids that aren't ready (for whatever reason: academic or athletic), go to the prep school or grayshirt. But if an athlete is in the actual academy itself, there is no redshirting. 

[Antitroll2828]

2 hours ago, Winners Circle said:

Yes. Ricciardi is the guy. No, service academies cannot redshirt. Kids that aren't ready (for whatever reason: academic or athletic), go to the prep school or grayshirt. But if an athlete is in the actual academy itself, there is no redshirting. 

I know they send a lot of big recruits to the naval prep school for a year , navy way of redshirting a guy. Danny Wask did a few years back.

glad to see Ricciardi making the jump right away , he was so dominant last year but was over shadowed by guys like Knox and Lundington in NJ. He was real high end potential. Hopefully Navy can get 2 NJ guys on the podium this season 

[Winners Circle]

1 minute ago, Antitroll2828 said:

I know they send a lot of big recruits to the naval prep school for a year , navy way of redshirting a guy. Danny Wask did a few years back.

glad to see Ricciardi making the jump right away , he was so dominant last year but was over shadowed by guys like Knox and Lundington in NJ. He was real high end potential. Hopefully Navy can get 2 NJ guys on the podium this season 

Right. But once you're at the academy, there's no redshirt.

[Antitroll2828]

2 minutes ago, Winners Circle said:

Right. But once you're at the academy, there's no redshirt.

Makes sense, I’d definitely add Riccardi to my list of people to qualify and maybe even AA 

id also add Gavin Hawk from Princeton to this list I wasn’t aware he was starting this year 

[Tyler Perry]

On 11/2/2025 at 9:30 PM, 2001Hokie said:

Does Langosa count as a sleeper pick after he beat Pitzer ('25 R12) twice this weekend? 

Idk, not a big name, had a great weekend 

[Antitroll2828]

6 hours ago, ScottishSteel said:

Great call - it's not talked about enough at all about how consistent Rider is w/ that

And they do it with basically no resources , Alvarez in an interview last year said they were practicing outside on a mat on a baseball field at one point . They lose guys to the portal , the last big recruits they brought in were Clagon and Walsh over a decade ago but they produce an AA , a few suprising NQs and conference champs every season.

Brock Zurawski went from never placing higher then 7th in the state ( 2x placer 7th and 8th) to a 9-8 redshirt year to winning the conference and upsetting the 7th seed Volker at ncaas his redshirt freshman season

[GoWithTheFlo]

On 11/3/2025 at 8:10 AM, Antitroll2828 said:

Almost a guarantee that someone from Rider that no one considers or even heard of right now will qualify in march . I don’t think any program does more with less then rider 

 

 

Jace Schafer 125 for Bloomsburg now gets Stuzman his first NQ since his return this season 

They just need someone from NJ to transfer in and go 149 and they’ll get an AA haha. Thinking of Kinner and Alvarez

[ScottishSteel]

16 hours ago, GoWithTheFlo said:

They just need someone from NJ to transfer in and go 149 and they’ll get an AA haha. Thinking of Kinner and Alvarez

Both of which were former B1G 133 lbers, right?  We are narrowing down the criteria here

[Idaho]

On 11/2/2025 at 6:01 PM, Tyler Perry said:

157: Joel Adams (Oregon State)

 

Joel is going to jump levels this season...being off the folk mat for 2.5 years, he's already making some progress knocking off a ranked guy last weekend. 

[wrestlingfan22]

On 11/4/2025 at 12:44 PM, Antitroll2828 said:

And they do it with basically no resources , Alvarez in an interview last year said they were practicing outside on a mat on a baseball field at one point . They lose guys to the portal , the last big recruits they brought in were Clagon and Walsh over a decade ago but they produce an AA , a few suprising NQs and conference champs every season.

Brock Zurawski went from never placing higher then 7th in the state ( 2x placer 7th and 8th) to a 9-8 redshirt year to winning the conference and upsetting the 7th seed Volker at ncaas his redshirt freshman season

As someone who has been to Rider for wrestling events, it is SMALL, and the facilities are those of a tiny school with many commuters

[Elevator]

Evan Mougalian from Penn.

https://pennathletics.com/sports/wrestling/roster/evan-mougalian/24714

[wrestlingfan22]

31 minutes ago, Elevator said:

Evan Mougalian from Penn.

https://pennathletics.com/sports/wrestling/roster/evan-mougalian/24714

To beat out Composto? Or are you saying he is moving weights

[BigRedFan]

48 minutes ago, wrestlingfan22 said:

To beat out Composto? Or are you saying he is moving weights

Mougalian wrestled 133 today at the Journeyman.  Lost to Lehigh's (likely) RS Matty Lopes (who could be a sleeper pick if he were to wrestle:  see Crookham, Ryan).

[Elevator]

19 minutes ago, BigRedFan said:

Mougalian wrestled 133 today at the Journeyman.  Lost to Lehigh's (likely) RS Matty Lopes (who could be a sleeper pick if he were to wrestle:  see Crookham, Ryan).

Yes made 133 - Lopes got a td at end of 1st, Mougalian rode him for the entire 2nd and had one swipe on a tilt.  Mougalian escape in 3rd and very close to a few tds in 3rd.  Do not know how good Lopes is but seems pretty good on his feet and not easy to finish on.